Round Three Report
Rasmus Højgaard marched into a commanding three-shot lead at the Cazoo Classic after the 20-year-old produced a magnificent course record 62 at London Golf Club to move into pole position for a third European Tour title.
The Kent venue, which was the first course to become a European Tour Destination back in 2010, has a strong history of hosting big tournaments and many great players have graced its fairways, including Sergio Garcia, Rory McIlroy and Colin Montgomerie.
But the gifted young Dane, who won twice in 2020 including at the Belfry in the ISPS HANDA UK Championship, went lower than any of them could on the Jack Nicklaus-designed Heritage Course with a flawless ten under round.
Højgaard finished with back-to-back birdies to set a new course record – beating the previous record of 63 set by Ross Fisher at the 2008 European Open – and move to a 14 under total, storming into a three-stroke lead from six shots back at the beginning of the day.
The closest challengers heading into the final round are Scot Calum Hill, who shared the leading heading into the final day at last week’s Hero Open before losing out to compatriot Grant Forrest, and Jordan Smith, who was the third round leader at the previous week’s ISPS HANDA World Invitational presented by Modest! Golf Management.
They both carded rounds of 70 to move to 11 under par, one shot ahead of Richard Bland – a winner on English soil earlier this year at the Betfred British Masters – and his fellow Englishman Dale Whitnell.
Frenchman Victor Perez, who is targeting a late push into contention for a place on Pádraig Harrington’s European Ryder Cup team, is one of five players in a share of sixth position on nine under.
Player Quotes
Rasmus Højgaard: “I didn’t have any clue what the course record was. I knew I was probably around it but I didn’t know what it was.
“First of all, I drove the ball way better today that I did in the first couple of days. So I was putting myself in position and I could be aggressive from the fairway, holed putts from everywhere basically and then I had a spell on the back nine where I was really stressed. We were on the clock so I probably rushed a couple of shots but then I finished strongly so I’m very happy.
“I think if you drive the ball well here you can shoot a good score so that’s the main focus tomorrow. If you get it on the fairway you just take it from there but it’s pretty straight-forward when you’re in the fairway, so I think that will be the key, to drive it well.”
Jordan Smith: “Definitely a game of two halves. You just look at the colours on the scorecard. It couldn’t have been more different, couldn’t have done anything wrong on the front nine and couldn’t do much right on the back nine. But I hung in there, we’re still in it.
“I had a lot of fun out there actually which was nice so I’m just going to continue that attitude into tomorrow.
“It’s key to be patient. You saw Rasmus out there shooting a good score early doors, so you know there’s a score out there but you just have to stay patient – the wind got up and the greens started to get a little bit bobbly in the afternoon so I just had to hang in there.
“That second shot at 16, it was just a lash it and hope it comes out and it came out very low and thankfully cleared that bunker. Unfortunately it rolled off to the back but I made a nice par there and it kept the round going.
“I feel good. I’m going to clip a few to stay on top of things but I’m feeling really good, I’m liking where my game’s at.”
Callum Hill: “I am hitting the ball nicely and played really nice golf today, so I am very happy. The thing is my misses today were in really good spots, so the game is in good shape.
“At the 13th, I decided to go for the green, having laid up the day before, and I hit one of my best drives that landed in a safe spot up in the rough left of the hole. I then played a great chip shot that almost went in. It was a bit unlucky as it caught a decent chunk of the hole but I managed to birdie the hole so that was good.
“I heard my friends a couple of times out there between green and tee but generally didn’t notice them. It’s nice to have the guys here as I have not seen them in quite a while because they live down this way.
“Tomorrow, I need to be fractionally more lucky on the par fives, because I had rough breaks on all of them today, and didn’t manage to birdie one of them. And then if I make two more putts I will shoot eight under and win it by about three!”
Round Three Scores:
202 R HOJGAARD (DEN) 71 69 62,
205 C HILL (SCO) 68 67 70, J SMITH (ENG) 66 69 70,
206 R BLAND (ENG) 65 71 70, D WHITNELL (ENG) 66 68 72,
207 J DONALDSON (WAL) 72 69 66, L VAN MEIJEL (NED) 73 68 66, R RAMSAY (SCO) 70 70 67, D DRYSDALE (SCO) 68 72 67, V PEREZ (FRA) 70 69 68,
208 A SULLIVAN (ENG) 74 67 67, J MORRISON (ENG) 70 71 67, C SHINKWIN (ENG) 70 70 68, D YOUNG (SCO) 68 71 69, B WIESBERGER (AUT) 68 71 69, M SIEM (GER) 70 69 69, R FOX (NZL) 71 67 70, A CHESTERS (ENG) 70 68 70,
209 A LEVY (FRA) 70 73 66, J CAMPILLO (ESP) 71 71 67, D HORSEY (ENG) 73 69 67, S SHARMA (IND) 70 71 68, N KEARNEY (IRL) 68 70 71, D VAN TONDER (RSA) 69 69 71,
210 B MACPHERSON (AUS) 74 67 69, Y CHANG (KOR) 72 69 69, K SAMOOJA (FIN) 71 69 70, J HANSEN (DEN) 69 70 71, M KIEFFER (GER) 68 71 71, L BJERREGAARD (DEN) 67 71 72, B EVANS (ENG) 70 67 73, M ANTCLIFF (AUS) 68 68 74,
211 L SLATTERY (ENG) 74 69 68, N LEMKE (SWE) 67 75 69, S KIM (USA) 66 73 72, M FORD (ENG) 68 71 72, S GALLACHER (SCO) 72 66 73, R ENOCH (WAL) 69 65 77
212 A CA?IZARES (ESP) 74 69 69, J WALTERS (RSA) 70 73 69, N H?JGAARD (DEN) 72 70 70, C SORDET (FRA) 69 73 70, J THOMSON (ENG) 72 70 70, W BESSELING (NED) 69 72 71, M SOUTHGATE (ENG) 70 71 71, M KAWAMURA (JPN) 71 70 71, O WILSON (ENG) 72 68 72, A QUIROS (ESP) 72 67 73,
213 A KARLSSON (SWE) 70 73 70, E PEPPERELL (ENG) 71 72 70, T TREE (ENG) 69 69 75,
214 R FISHER (ENG) 76 67 71, J SURI (USA) 74 69 71, L GAGLI (ITA) 69 73 72, D VAN DRIEL (NED) 70 70 74,
215 M JORDAN (ENG) 73 68 74, M KINHULT (SWE) 68 72 75,
216 B HENSON (USA) 70 72 74, J CALDWELL (NIR) 70 72 74, J STALTER (FRA) 67 74 75, J CATLIN (USA) 68 72 76, P PETERSON (USA) 69 70 77,
217 B DREDGE (WAL) 73 70 74, R MCGOWAN (ENG) 72 70 75, R SCIOT-SIEGRIST (FRA) 70 72 75,
218 S V?LIM?KI (FIN) 72 71 75, G PORTEOUS (ENG) 71 71 76,
221 L SHEPHERD (AM) (ENG) 75 68 78
